MARIETTA — Slightly more than $64,000 in endowment funds have already been collected by the Marietta Schools Foundation for the Marietta High School auditorium that is still under construction.

During the Marietta City School Board’s one-hour meeting Tuesday night, members heard from Neil Barfield, the executive director of the foundation, for the first time since September on where the organization is with fundraising for the auditorium’s upkeep.

“In September, you asked us to create an endowment to help pay for operating costs of the auditorium,” Barfield reminded the board.

The auditorium is on tap to be completed by the end of January. It is being paid for with a $7 million bond approved by Marietta voters last spring.

Lembeck previously told Barfield that it could cost the district between $150,000 to $200,000 annually to maintain the facility.

“Last April (2012) we started making contacts to create some interest in this endowment,” he told board members in September, and presented them with a list of objects and spaces they could try and endow between 2012 and 2014.

To date, they have sold 44 seats at $1,000 each for $44,000 in donations and Ed Voyles Automotive paid $20,000 in endowments for the boys and girls dressing rooms, which were $10,000 each.

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